Apple Replaces Bing With Google Search Results In Siri
Apple has swapped Microsoft’s Bing for Google text search results inside its Siri virtual assistant which further embedded the world’s largest search engine into its iPhone operating system.
The move shows that while Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android are fierce rivals in the smartphone world, the two companies have struggled to reduce their inter-dependency.
Apple first started to incorporate Bing into Siri in 2014, making Microsoft’s service the default search engine when Siri users asked certain questions or to show web search results.
At the time, it was seen as a big win for Microsoft, which has long trailed behind Google in search results, especially in the US. It followed Apple’s ejection of Google Maps from iOS in 2012, after an initially disastrous attempt by the iPhone maker to embed its own maps service and reduce its reliance on Google services.
However, Google has always remained the default search engine for queries typed into its Safari web browser, giving it a powerful position on hundreds of millions of iPhones, iPads and Macs.
Court case
Meanwhile, facts emerged last year in court filings related to an Oracle case that Google paid Apple $1bn in 2014 for that position and analysts at Bernstein have estimated the fee could rise to $3bn in the current financial year, or around 5 percent of Apple’s total operating profits.
Neither Apple nor Google would comment on the commercial arrangements behind the Siri integration, which began rolling out to customers on Monday.
Apple presented the change, which also affects queries from within the iOS home screen and on its Mac desktop, as an effort to improve the consistency across its different services. And Bing will still provide image search results inside Siri while video queries will go through YouTube.
“Switching to Google as the web search provider for Siri, Search within iOS and Spotlight on Mac will allow these services to have a consistent web search experience with the default in Safari,” Apple said in a statement, which was first reported by TechCrunch.
“We have strong relationships with Google and Microsoft and remain committed to delivering the best user experience possible.”
